I work in publishing and I like to read things. Herewith: free association on books, nice things I ate, publishing, editing, and other nice things I ate.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Memories of Vermont

So, as perhaps I mentioned, I was recently in Vermont for one of my very exciting reunions with my high school girlfriends. Now Vermont has one major detraction--the giant spider that scurried out of my pants Sunday morning--but otherwise seems to be a freakishly idyllic place full of flowers, dairy products, and people wearing bright colors. Also, neighbors say HI to each other, as do--shudder--strangers! Hard for me to wrap my head around, but... what's the word. Oh yeah, NICE.

One major NON-detraction of Vermont turned out to be the Ben & Jerry's factory, a 4-minute drive from my friend's house. Tours are $3 and include a LARGE free sample of ice cream. For others with non-ice cream tastes, there is also the Magic Hat Brewery, the Cabot Cheese Factory, and the Green Mountain Coffee Factory, all of which can be toured.

My favorite part of the Ben & Jerry's tour was the Flavor Graveyard. The headstones--there were probably 20 or 25 total--were hilarious. It was also my least favorite part of the tour, because some of the dead flavors sounded pretty delicious. My People weep that the Holy Cannoli was discontinued.

I love sweet potato pie. I'm not sure if it would be a great ice cream flavor, but this sure makes me curious to try...

The flavor graveyard's my favourite part too- the free sample was disappointing, seeing as I'm not a choc chip mint fan, and that's what they had that day! We had to drive two and half hours to get there though, and so I felt justified in making up for that disappointment with an enormous cup of cake batter and choc fudge brownie with hot fudge sauce. :)

Oh, the grief is renewed! After all these years, Chubby Hubby had finally erased all memory of the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough, but now I can remember its taste as if it just melted off my tongue, never to be tasted again.

Chocolate ice cream, regular cookie dough, and gobs of peanut butter mixed in. More perfect a treat the never will be...

Ah, Vermont. Now i am all homesick. I went to Norwich, which is also a very interesting tourist stop. The campus is not only beautiful, but packed full of American history. So, if you're ever in Northfield, you should stop by. Tuesday afternoons you can see the cadets on parade (unless things have changed).

Our women's rugny team once went to Ben and Jerry's. Let's just say we took the place over, and some of those recipes might have died because we ate the factory out of them.

Oh, and the Christmas store (I can't remember the name- probably the Christmas store) is definitely not to be missed. Even if you hate Christmas, because it really covers every holiday you could possibly dream up.

Off to do some more writing, so I can be a big enough success to go back there one day.

Oh, this brings back memories of the long lost Rainforest Crunch to me. I remember sitting in TJ's pizza in Jersey in the late 80s, munching the stuff. I still keep an eye out for it, even though it's been long discontinued.

Yes--those samples are big! And we could get seconds. Cake batter. Not my fav--but still. We went in the winter so didn't get to tour outside-thanks for the photos. We also pigged on cheese from the cabot factory and looked at the overly expensive vermont teddy bears and the apple cider place.

I’m a California girl now, but I went to high school in central Vermont. We used to go up to the original B&J’s in Burlington. (I’m dating myself, as this store in an old gas station closed many moons ago.) You had to pedal the stationary bike that churned their ice cream while you stood in line. It was hysterical, but always worth it.

I still remember my first taste of Ben & Jerry's ice cream - 1995, a pint of White Russian given in exchange for my participation in the Humboldt Lupine Bash despite record snowfall - man, why'd they get rid of that one? It was so tasty...